2010 Versus TV-ratings are up

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Versus averaged 518,000 viewers (0.3 U.S. rating) for last Saturday night's Izod IndyCar Series Firestone 550k at Texas Motor Speedway from 8:42-11:04pm ET, marking the net's most-viewed race telecast since it began airing IndyCar races last season.

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http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/139903

If you look closely at the little schedule you see where they got the gains. Texas started 1.5 hours earlier than last year. Also the two lowest rated races were shifted to ABC and replaced with brandnew events, which always score higher.
Still, let's hope this trend continues because they sure need this positive reporting.

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Originally Posted by Lousada

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/139903

If you look closely at the little schedule you see where they got the gains. Texas started 1.5 hours earlier than last year. Also the two lowest rated races were shifted to ABC and replaced with brandnew events, which always score higher.
Still, let's hope this trend continues because they sure need this positive reporting.

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When harping about a 0.3 is positive reporting then you know you are in trouble.

Hopefully they can keep it up so indycar can eventually rise back to the specticle it once was.

I would be flat embarrassed to be the one writing about a .3 rating and 500,000 people total watching, being something that "is the best" of anything.

That is pathetic, no matter how you spin it.

Actually its not that bad. The ICS needed to show improvement, and they haven't seen the average that would really help, 1.0 on Versus and 2.0 on ABC, but they're getting better, an a half-million constant fans, of which 60 percent or so are in the coveted 18-40 age bracket, so its not bad.

By way of comparison the 2009 MLS playoffs on ESPN drew a .2 average with an average of 225,000 viewers. The WNBA 2009 playoffs averaged .3 and a .1 for its regular season, has almost no male viewers takes loses of at least $12 million a year which is covered by the NBA.

The NHL saw its best ratings since the 70s, in part helped by two storied franchises in finals and a stunning performance at the Olympics. More people watched the final game than the Indy 500 and the playoff average was a more than respectable 3.6 average. Since the NHL is on Versus it should help raise that channel's profile and by extension help the IRL

The juggernaut that is NASCAR kept chugging on Sunday with Neilson fast nationals showing a 3.3 ratings for 5.4 million viewers and won the day on basic cable in total viewers and adults 18-54.

The ICS is probably breaking even and is collecting more sponsors. Now that they've stopped the bleeding they can focus on building, so yeah, Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.

Given how badly the MLS and the WNBA are doing on ESPN the fact that the ICS can pull in a 500,000 on much more obscure network is a pretty good sign. Long term maybe Versus is the answer, but short term the answer is to get out of that deal somehow and get as many races on broadcast and more established cable networks as possible.

A .3 and 500k rating is certainly nothing to crow about. That being said, it is in the same range as the races that previously were on ESPN and ESPN2. It also is quite a bit better than the last IRL night race at Kentucky, which got ratings that barely registered. If VS can get the series to around a .5ish and 800k viewer rating, that will be considered a financially viable number for sponsors. Right now, they're still in the doldrums of barely getting by.

A .3 is flat out F'en horrible

any and all attempts to paint it as anything but is pathetic

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Originally Posted by MDS

The ICS is probably breaking even and is collecting more sponsors. Now that they've stopped the bleeding they can focus on building, so yeah, Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.

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And what are you basing this on?

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Originally Posted by call_me_andrew

And what are you basing this on?

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The Apex, Izod and Sunoco deals in combination with the other sponsors that have come on board in the last two years like Holmatro combined with the cuts they've made have to put the league at least close to breaking even, if not better.

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Originally Posted by MDS

The Apex, Izod and Sunoco deals in combination with the other sponsors that have come on board in the last two years like Holmatro combined with the cuts they've made have to put the league at least close to breaking even, if not better.

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Holmatro is seriously reassessing their Indy Car sponsorship after the Texas debacle.

Apex is for the Brazilian race and drivers. Izod got a sweet deal...so sweet that they won't even sponsor their driver anymore this year. Don't know the details of the Sunoco deal.

The preeminent team in Indy Car has 2 cars without sponsors. Many others are either without major sponsorship or under sponsored. A large percentage of the grid is there because of ride buyers.

Their be all that ends all, signature event had 1000's of empty seats and lower TV numbers.

Hopefully the series will continue to improve.

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Originally Posted by F1boat

Hopefully the series will continue to improve.

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I'll second that

Rtg (H-holds) Ntwk Race [2009 rtg]

0.4 (411,000) VS Sao Paulo [n/a]
0.6 (???,???) ABC St. Pete rainout show [VS 0.3]
0.4 (310,000) VS Barber [n/a]
0.5 (490,000) VS Long Beach [VS 0.5]
0.7 (???,???) ABC Kansas [VS .15]
3.6 (???,???) ABC Indy 500 [ABC 4.0]
0.3 (518,000) VS Texas [VS .36]

Just so Im clear.....this years texas rating was the lowest rated Versus race this season.... not to mention that it was lower than long beach last year as well as lower than than the texas race last year...

yet it was the most watched race ever on Versus...

color me a little skeptical

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Originally Posted by SarahFan

Rtg (H-holds) Ntwk Race [2009 rtg]

0.4 (411,000) VS Sao Paulo [n/a]
0.6 (???,???) ABC St. Pete rainout show [VS 0.3]
0.4 (310,000) VS Barber [n/a]
0.5 (490,000) VS Long Beach [VS 0.5]
0.7 (???,???) ABC Kansas [VS .15]
3.6 (???,???) ABC Indy 500 [ABC 4.0]
0.3 (518,000) VS Texas [VS .36]

Just so Im clear.....this years texas rating was the lowest rated Versus race this season.... not to mention that it was lower than long beach last year as well as lower than than the texas race last year...

yet it was the most watched race ever on Versus...

color me a little skeptical

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You're mixing up viewers and households. The ratings are calculated on the household number. What they are publishing is the amount of viewers. You can have more than one viewer per household. So it could well be that the Texas rating is not the highest rating but still had the most viewers.

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Originally Posted by Lousada

You're mixing up viewers and households. The ratings are calculated on the household number. What they are publishing is the amount of viewers. You can have more than one viewer per household. So it could well be that the Texas rating is not the highest rating but still had the most viewers.

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I understand.......

this isnt rocket science.......or Indy Qualifying..



like I said........lowest rated so far year this year, not to mention lower than LB as well as texas last year.... yet more viewers?...

well the same logic about more than one viewer applies to those broadcasts as well.....

color me skeptical...........you? believe what you want

So in summary it should look a little like this:
VS Sao Paulo - 411 (n/a)
ABC St. Pete - n/a (233)
VS Barber - 310 (n/a)
VS Long Beach - 490 (478)
ABC Kansas - 0.7 (222)
ABC Indy - 3.6 (4.0)
(Milwaukee - n/a (0.6))
VS Texas - 518 (467)

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Originally Posted by SarahFan

I understand.......

this isnt rocket science.......or Indy Qualifying..



like I said........lowest rated so far year this year, not to mention lower than LB as well as texas last year.... yet more viewers?...

well the same logic about more than one viewer applies to those broadcasts as well.....

color me skeptical...........you? believe what you want

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Were do you get that? Long Beach last year could never ever be a .5 with 478.000 viewers. Nor could St.Pete be a .3 with 233.000 viewers. Where did you get these rating numbers from? I trust the Sports Business Journal enough that the numbers in this article are correct.

Official ICS 2009 TV ratings thread
I thought I would try to keep track of the ratings for the broadcasts this year. If you see the official rating after a race, please post it in this thread and I will update this first post. Without further ado:

Rtg (H-holds) Ntwk Race

0.3 (233,000) VS St. Pete
0.5 (388,864) VS Long Beach
.15 (171,000) VS Kansas
4.0 (???,???) ABC Indy 500
0.7 (852,000) ABC Milwaukee
.36 (467,000) VS Texas
0.8 (???,???) ABC Iowa
.22 (248,000) VS Richmond
.87 (???,???) ABC Watkins Glen
1.0 (770,000) ABC Toronto
.24 (279,000) VS Edmonton
.14 (165,000) VS Kentucky
0.2 (233,000) VS Mid-Ohio
.25 (281,000) VS Sonoma
.24 (271,000) VS Chicagoland
.14 (165,000) VS Motegi
.15 (171,000) VS Homestead-Miami

.24 = avg rating on Versus (12 races)
1.5 = avg rating on ABC with Indy (5 races)
0.8 = avg rating on ABC without Indy (4 races)

Season recap by SportsBusiness Journal:


^there was a fairly extensive thread at another forum....hotly debated last season season

in the end the these were the accepted #'s...

are you suggesting they are incorrect?

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Originally Posted by Lousada

Were do you get that? Long Beach last year could never ever be a .5 with 478.000 viewers. Nor could St.Pete be a .3 with 233.000 viewers. Where did you get these rating numbers from? I trust the Sports Business Journal enough that the numbers in this article are correct.

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then were this years #'s for Brazil, barber and LB also incorrect?

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Originally Posted by SarahFan

Rtg (H-holds) Ntwk Race

0.3 (233,000) VS St. Pete
0.5 (388,864) VS Long Beach
1.0 (770,000) ABC Toronto

^there was a fairly extensive thread at another forum....hotly debated last season season

in the end the these were the accepted #'s...

are you suggesting they are incorrect?

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These three numbers are overnights and not finals!

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Originally Posted by SarahFan

then were this years #'s for Brazil, barber and LB also incorrect?

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They never published the ratings for Brazil, Barber and Long Beach as far as I remember. Only the viewerships. It's keyboard jockeys like us that calculated ratings from the published numbers.
If you want continuity in your schedule you need to set Texas at a .45 rating.

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Originally Posted by Lousada

They never published the ratings for Brazil, Barber and Long Beach as far as I remember. Only the viewerships. It's keyboard jockeys like us that calculated ratings from the published numbers.
If you want continuity in your schedule you need to set Texas at a .45 rating.

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why would I set Texas at .45 when the sportjournal that you just said is trustworthy put it at .3?

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Originally Posted by Lousada

These three numbers are overnights and not finals!

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i dont think so

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Originally Posted by SarahFan

why would I set Texas at .45 when the sportjournal that you just said is trustworthy put it at .3?

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Because you insist on calculating ratings from viewership instead of households. The .3 is the household rating (the real rating!). The .45 is the viewership rating.

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Originally Posted by Lousada

Because you insist on calculating ratings from viewership instead of households. The .3 is the household rating (the real rating!). The .45 is the viewership rating.

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2 ratings?


now there is 2 ratings?

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Originally Posted by SarahFan

i dont think so

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I think so. The Toronto number is definately an overnight, you can look that back.
Overnights are calculated over about 77 million homes. .5% of 77 million is 385, or roughly that Long Beach number. While .3% of 77 million is 233 or the St.Pete number. If you reset those numbers to finals, Texas '10 becomes the highest rated Versus race again.

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Originally Posted by SarahFan

2 ratings?


now there is 2 ratings?

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According to you!

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Originally Posted by Lousada

According to you!

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Me?

your the one who changed a published .3 to a .45




I'm simply saying that I find it a little skeptical that a published .3 ratings on VS, which is lower than the previos three races this season, not to mention LB 2009 as well as the same race (texas) as last year produced the the most watched INDYcar race on VS...


from where i sit one of three things is incorrect

A. the 2010 texas rating
B. the 2010 texas Viewer #
C. all the previos #'s from 13 races broadcast on Vs

or then there is

D: the author has all the #'s correct, but mistakenly compared the viewer # to the previos household #'s and ran with the incorrect assumption it was the most watched race on Vs

There was a deal like this last year, Texas if I remember right. The ratings number was something like .36, but if you looked at the households it should have been a .63. Or the other way around (can't remember, I've slept since then). Anyway, I think I'd trust the households number more than the mythical "share" but that's just me.

Just went back and looked at your numbers Ken/Sarah. It was Texas. It had a .36 share, but more households than the .5 LB. Something "funny". I'll stick with looking at households.

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Originally Posted by chuck34

Just went back and looked at your numbers Ken/Sarah. It was Texas. It had a .36 share, but more households than the .5 LB. Something "funny". I'll stick with looking at households.

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interesting...

becuase I tend to trust the neilson rating....and figure authors/posters/bloggers/etc get the conversion between hoseholds and viewers etc wrong/confused....



for me if neilson says texas is a .3...... and LB was a .5.......Id suggest LB outperformed texas..... the rest is just spin, statistics and Bull****

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Originally Posted by Lousada

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/139903

If you look closely at the little schedule you see where they got the gains. Texas started 1.5 hours earlier than last year. Also the two lowest rated races were shifted to ABC and replaced with brandnew events, which always score higher.
Still, let's hope this trend continues because they sure need this positive reporting.

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This does not matter since the biggest race of the year records the lowest ratings ever, down from last year. There were some interesting (read panic) meetings the past few weeks and Izod is not at all pleased. They had expected an increase, of a point or more. That did not happen, and spin mode is in play.

And that folks, is bad news.

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Originally Posted by EagleEye

This does not matter since the biggest race of the year records the lowest ratings ever, down from last year. There were some interesting (read panic) meetings the past few weeks and Izod is not at all pleased. They had expected an increase, of a point or more. That did not happen, and spin mode is in play.

And that folks, is bad news.

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there was a lot of talk/smoke about key metrics when the Izod deal was inked.....

I would think a increase in the i500 rating was at the top of the list

Household numbers are easy to count: one per television. Viewership numbers are trickier but are the ones which matter, because they measures how many people watch.

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Originally Posted by EagleEye

This does not matter since the biggest race of the year records the lowest ratings ever, down from last year. There were some interesting (read panic) meetings the past few weeks and Izod is not at all pleased. They had expected an increase, of a point or more. That did not happen, and spin mode is in play.

And that folks, is bad news.

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do you think IZOD would leave indycar if they are not pleased at all? or stick around and hope for the best?

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Originally Posted by The instant classic

do you think IZOD would leave indycar if they are not pleased at all? or stick around and hope for the best?

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If they believe it ain't working and they have a Legal out they are gone. Those are big "if"s though.

It all comes down to if they can sell more alligators because of the deal.

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Originally Posted by EagleEye

This does not matter since the biggest race of the year records the lowest ratings ever, down from last year. There were some interesting (read panic) meetings the past few weeks and Izod is not at all pleased. They had expected an increase, of a point or more. That did not happen, and spin mode is in play.

And that folks, is bad news.

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This!^

We have to remember that this is the Indy Racing League, not the Texas Racing League or the Barber Motorsports Park Racing League. So with Indy's ratings over the past decade still trending down like Enron's final 12 month stock chart, and with the Indy 500 now getting a TV rating that's just a tad higher than what Long Beach used to get, THAT is the issue that the league is going to have to deal with.

This new fellow at the IRL seems like he has the spirit to get things done. The question is whether or not he can figure out WHAT to do - and if he'll get the support and resources necessary to be effective. It seems that someone at the IRL or IMS would study how the Kentucky Derby completely turned itself around when its situation was very similar to what the IRL is now facing - and maybe hire some of the people who helped get that done! The Derby was recording lower TV viewership year after year, and then they found ways to appeal to (non-hardcore) fans again. It took awhile, but they're now seeing much higher ratings. Did I read that this year's ratings were a record for the Derby? So in the same month that Indy got a record low, the Kentucky Derby got a record high? Somebody can check the numbers, but I thought that's what I read.

The Super Bowl is not seeing near record low TV ratings... neither is the Daytona 500 or the World Series. I don't watch basketball, but I doubt the NBA finals are going to see near record low ratings either. It's nice that the Versus numbers are up, though it seems the devil is in the details with them too. But if they really are up, then that's good. But still, marquee events should not be touching new lows every year, if the overall sport is to ever grow. The IRL is just going to have to admit that it's not the economy, sun spots, BP oil, or anything else. I don't know what it is (or how to fix it). But since it's not affecting other sports in the same way/to the same degree, it is something unique about the IRL that's causing this continued drop off in viewership and interest every year. There's something about the current state of open wheel racing that is still causing people to change the channel... even for the Indy 500.

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Originally Posted by Jag_Warrior

It seems that someone at the IRL or IMS would study how the Kentucky Derby completely turned itself around when its situation was very similar to what the IRL is now facing - and maybe hire some of the people who helped get that done! The Derby was recording lower TV viewership year after year, and then they found ways to appeal to (non-hardcore) fans again. It took awhile, but they're now seeing much higher ratings. Did I read that this year's ratings were a record for the Derby? So in the same month that Indy got a record low, the Kentucky Derby got a record high? Somebody can check the numbers, but I thought that's what I read.

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I am tired of the Kentucky Derby Comparison.
Yes the Derby's ratings have been climbing as of late (Thanks Barbaro) but it has not equated to a growth in Horse racing. In fact parimutuels have been dying out across the land.

The growth in the Derby is a product of shrewd marketing of things that are unique to the event. Alcohol, fashion and gambling. Alcohol in that it is considered a Cocktail party that is "cool" to attend. Fashion in the hats and the label outfits the women at the cocktail wear. Gambling is self explanatory.
The media salivation over Barbaro also brought huge attention to the event. And people like Horses.

Indy has none of those. Aside from the cars and a few drivers Indy has Parades, Tenderloins and Jim Nabors. That is about as cool as a Jr. High-School Dungeons and Dragons club.

Why is this the first I'm hearing about tenderloins?